An Encouraging Call to Prayer
I love my neighbor Eric. He's a 23-year-old guy studying economics at university. He's pretty straight-laced, always sporting a button-up shirt (even on Saturdays) and a clean-shaven face. We hang out a lot, mostly in coffee houses. He told me a story one day last year that was pretty amazing.
When Eric was 9 years old he saw one guy give another guy a New Testament. The guy that received the NT threw it in the trash can. Eric went over to the trash can and dug the NT out, and has kept it to this day.
That's not to say that Eric is a believer. He reads the Bible on his own, we read it together pretty often, but he is still a Muslim in his own words. He doesn't accept the Bible's claim that Jesus is God. He has hit the stumbling block hard.
For a couple of months we studied a lot together, and he asked a lot of good and hard questions. We quit, though, when he had a couple of weeks of final exams. After those couple of weeks, Eric didn't seem as interested as before. We still hung out, we still talked, but he just didn't seem interested in the Bible or religion or anything of the sort. I was a little discouraged, but I kept praying for him.
We met again a few days ago, and he told me he's been reading. We talked about what it means to believe, and what God does when someone believes. Eric asked me a lot about sin, and why I don't do it like everybody else. I told him God changed me when I believed, and He helps me. Then the conversation went kind of like this:
Eric - "Why doesn't God change me? I read, I pray sometimes."
Me - "Do you believe?"
Eric - "I believe the Bible is holy."
Me - "I have to ask you: Who's Jesus?"
Eric - (Sighs) "All my life I've been taught Jesus was just a prophet. All my life I've been taught the Bible has been changed and distorted. Then you come along and tell me differently. If you were in my place, wouldn't it be hard?"
Me - "Yeah, it'd be hard."
Eric - "I want God to change me like He changed you. You don't have sex, you don't do the junk others do. But it's hard to believe."
Wow. If he meant what he said, God is working in him. He feels a need to change, and he sees that God is the one that works that change. Praise God!! He is working over here, and he is working in Eric's life! I've been praying for Eric with new joy and new passion. Please join with me in prayer for him.
very cool!
Posted by
Laney |
7:22 PM
God is Good brother!
Kev
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:55 PM
As Paul wrote to Corinth: "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building."
Thanks for your planting and watering, it is never in vain.
Posted by
Polarbear |
7:12 AM